I wish I could bottle it

The last few tournaments have been pretty good to me, actually better than pretty good. A Top 20 finish on Cayuga was about as good as I could have hoped for given the circumstances.

My practice stuff fell apart on Thursday morning and didn’t come back. What happened is still a mystery to me. Nothing I had going worked. So, it was back to basics. We talk about fishing the moment all the time and that’s exactly what I did. I simply went out and went fishing every day, trying to find new places and new ways to make them bite.

I didn’t have a pattern or a particular spot that I worked consistently. Basically, I just ran around the lake and fished whatever looked good with whatever bait caught my attention. It was a classic example of fishing the moment. That’s what I preach all the time but in general I think you should do it with some sort of plan.

Fishing without a plan is not the best way to approach a professional grade tournament but it worked for me so I’m not going to complain. Sometimes you take what you can get in this business.

In all honesty, I’m fishing about as well as I ever have in my career. It started back on Chickamauga. I just wish I knew what I was doing right. I have no idea. Before that, I couldn’t buy a good bite. I don’t know why that was happening back then, either. I wish I could bottle the good stuff and keep it, and bottle the bad stuff and throw it away.

It would be easy to say that it’s in my head or that I feel confident so I’m catching them but there’s more to it than that. I’m making good decisions on the water without wasting a lot of time. If I can keep that going, I’ll be in good shape during the postseason competition. Of course, everyone knows that “if” is the biggest two letter word in our language.

Before we get to the end of this thing I want to say a word or two about Greg Hackney. Tell me he’s not on a roll. He went nearly wire to wire last week without a moment’s hesitation! That’s serious fishing, guys.

The other thing about him is that he’s been doing it for most of the year. It’s the “wish I could bottle it” thing. Whatever he’s doing, he’s doing right. And it shows. He could always fish, though. This is just an extreme example of what the man is capable of accomplishing. I take my hat off to him. Good job, Greg.

I don’t have much else to say right now. We’re headed to Maine to fish another tournament and do some sightseeing with the kids. When that’s in the rearview mirror, it’ll be back to the house for a few days to do some work with my sponsors and then we’re off again.